Palm TX

I just recently purchased the Palm TX from OfficeMax. I ablsoutley love it so far. This was an upgrade from the Palm m130 and I like how much faster it is, the screen is much larger, it has bluetooth and Wi-Fi, displays pictures and video great and can easily sync to Microsoft Outlook which is great for keping contacts and a calendar up to date.

One of the big challenges I wanted to overcome was the fact that if you added video to the Palm through the Palm Desktop software, it would always re-encode it to save space....but I wasn't happy with the quality. So the solution (after a few days of research) was to get an SD Card reader and add MPEG1 files created with Sorenson Squeeze or TMPGEnc directly to the card. While those files will paly back in the default multimedia software that came with the Palm TX, I found it plays back better using TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player). So now I have great looking video playing back on the Palm....great for showing off video of my son or our company demo reel.

I have found that copying music to an SD card via a card reader is much faster than syncing Windows Media Player to the card through the TX. I don't know why it is, but the end result is the same....just a big speed difference.

I have had a few odd things happen when connected to Wi-Fi. For some reason it will lock up and I have to use the RESET button on the back, or the TX will just reboot itself. I have never lost any information from those reboots, but it is a bit annoying.

I just got a new Samsung A920 cel phone from Qwest that supposedly will allow me to connect to the PDA via Bluetooth and access the internet without needing to find a Wi-Fi hotspot. I'll let you know how that goes.

One super sweet free download for the Palm TX is Google Maps. You have to be connected to the internet to use it, but it is really really cool! You can actually have real time traffic conditions shown on the map. So far I have only used it to check traffic down the I-5 corridor in Seattle and seems to be pretty accurate. Side streets and non-major highways aren't monitored so it may not be helpful in all areas....but what a cool thing to have! I was thinking about getting a GPS add on for the TX but I think this is a much better solution if you just need to get directions.

If you're in the market for a PDA with great functionality and a large screen, I highly recommend the Palm TX.